THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL CONCEPTS OF PHILOLOGICAL EDUCATION IN THE USA

Theoretical and methodical foundations of higher philological education in the USA have been considered. Modern trends in the development of philology as a scientific field and a direction of professional training in the USA have been found out. Sociocultural peculiarities of philological education in the USA have been revealed. The essence of transformation processes in the philologists' training at present time has been considered. They are: diversity and flexibility of educational programs; close relationship of higher education and linguistic communities; «major-minor» specialization; using of innovative forms and methods; reducing stress and increasing classroom time for independent students' work; providing free access to education; improving elective education system; academic students' mobility; implementing of «expert systems» into the quality of educational outcomes; creating conditions for ethnic minorities education. The transformation of the philological education system at conceptual, legal and normative, organizational and pedagogical, content-based, institutional and sociocultural levels has been analyzed. It has been found out that the content of the training provides for the integration of social and humanitarian, linguistic, literature-based, translational components of learning outcomes directed at forming a competent philologist-researcher, philologist-translator/interpreter, philologist-literary scholar, thus a highly moral, cultured personality. Key competencies of a philologist (linguistic, literature-based, translational, cross-cultural, information, research) have been singled out and characterized. Special attention has been paid to the problem of providing quality philological education; in particular, the criteria and their indicators have been singled out. Perspectives for further researches on the problem of philological education in the USA have been outlined.